Female Millennials Have 34% Less Saved Than Their Male Counterparts

The women are also far more risk-averse, PNC Investments learned in a survey.

Female Millennials have saved an average of $66,700 for retirement, fully 34% less than the $101,500 their male counterparts have saved, according to the PNC Investments Millennials & Investing Survey. Additionally, female Millennials are much more risk-averse and are skeptical of alternative investments, including cryptocurrencies and peer-to-peer lending.

Fourteen percent of Millennial men say they embrace risk—twice the number of female Millennials.

“One of the foundational aspects of any financial plan is to determine your overall risk tolerance, and, for members of the younger generation, risk can be healthy,” says Rich Ramassini, senior vice president and director of strategy and sales performance for PNC Investments. “People’s appetite for risk is often not on par with how much risk they can actually handle. Increasing your financial knowledge can help you determine whether you are taking on the right amount of risk.”

On average, female Millennials say their parents started educating them about saving when they were 11.6 years old. For male Millennials, this is 12.7 years old. Male Millennials are more likely to rely on themselves and knowledge they attain through media and Internet sources.

Forty-six percent of female Millennials contribute 6% or more to retirement, compared with 57% of male Millennials. Twenty-nine percent of female Millennials have between $1,000 and $9,999 in investable assets, compared with 17% of men. Forty-six percent of male Millennials have $50,000 or more in investable assets, compared with 32% of female Millennials.

Eighty-three percent of male Millennials and 78% of female Millennials have a full-time job. However, only 43% of the males and 32% of the females feel they are in control of their financial well-being, and a mere 26% of the women but 40% of the men think they are saving enough for their future.

Chadwick Martin Bailey conducted the online survey for PNC Investments in January.

SEC Charges Merrill Lynch for Failing to Supervise RMBS Traders

The brokerage firm will pay more than $15 million in settlement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced that Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith will pay more than $15 million to settle charges that its employees misled customers into overpaying for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBSs). Merrill Lynch will repay customers more than $10.5 million and pay penalties of $5.2 million.

The charges say that Merrill Lynch traders and salespeople convinced customers to overpay for RMBSs by deceiving them about the price the firm paid to acquire the securities. Further, the SEC says, Merrill Lynch traders and salespeople illegally profited from excessive, undisclosed commissions. In some cases, the SEC says, these commissions were twice what customers should have paid. In addition, the SEC says, the firm’s traders and salespeople violated anti-fraud provisions of the federal securities laws in purchasing RMBSs.

Had Merrill Lynch had compliance and surveillance procedures in place, these egregious acts could have been prevented, the SEC says.

“In opaque RMBS markets, lying to customers about the acquisition price can deprive investors of important information,” says Daniel Michael, chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Complex Financial Instruments Unit. “The commission found that Merrill Lynch failed in its obligation to supervise traders who allegedly used their access to market information to take advantage of the bank’s own customers.”

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